Princesses of Heart

Kairi is the only princess of Heart that was created exclusively for Kingdom Hearts series.

The Seven Princesses of Heart (セブンプリンセス,Sebun Purinsesu?, lit. "Seven Princesses") are maidens with hearts of pure light, devoid of darkness. They are called "Princesses" as whoever can gather them will be able to summon the Final Keyhole, giving the person access to Kingdom Hearts.

The pure lights in the hearts of the Princesses are able to be "reincarnated". After the Final Keyhole was opened, the princesses passed on the lights to hide them again. This new generation is known as the New Seven Hearts.

Story

Before Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

The Princesses of Heart came into existence in the aftermath of the Keyblade War when the χ-blade, an ancient weapon that both defends and exists by Kingdom Hearts, broke into seven pure lights and thirteen pure darknesses. The seven lights ended up becoming the hearts of the seven Princesses, who brought light back into the world and rebuilt them in thousands of fragments.

Many years after the Keyblade War, a Keyblade Master named Xehanort researched the Keyblade War and learned of the Princesses' existences. However, unaware of their identities at the time, Xehanort searched them out as one of many plans to recreate the χ-blade.

During the respective adventures of Terra, Ventus, and Aqua, they each encountered three of the Princesses: Aurora, Snow White, and Cinderella. Only Aqua encountered Kairi while in Radiant Garden, sensing a light from her and unknowingly making her a Keyblade wielder while placing a spell on the girl that would send her to someone who could protect her if such a situation arose. As a fail-safe once his plans to hastily forge the χ-blade through the reunion of Ventus and Vanitas failed, Xehanort orchestrated a series of events to manipulate Maleficent into starting a quest to gather the Princesses of Heart for him.

One year after this event, Radiant Garden was invaded by the Heartless and the spell on Kairi took her to Destiny Islands.

The Seven Princesses of Heart make their first appearance in the very beginning of the game, during Sora's Dive to the Heart. There are four stained glass windows representing the four princesses who have been captured before the game's start, Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White. There is also a fifth window with three stylized princess silhouettes on it representing the three free princesses, Alice, Jasmine, and Kairi.

In order to open the Final Keyhole, Maleficent, the Heartless and Riku kidnapped each of the princesses from their respective worlds throughout Kingdom Hearts. During this kidnapping spree, Riku went to Neverland with Captain Hook under the belief that Wendy was the final Princess of Heart. Upon meeting her, Maleficent determined that Wendy was a false lead and Kairi was actually the final princess. But because Kairi had given her heart to Sora in the chaos of Destiny Island's destruction, the power of the princesses' hearts could not be fully utilized.

Having overseen the events for his original self, Xehanort's Heartless Ansem possessed Riku's body and used the hearts of the remaining six princesses to create the Keyblade of People's Hearts, which could release Kairi's heart from inside Sora. When confronted later, Ansem told Sora about Kairi's heartless state. When Sora realized the truth, he stabbed himself with the Keyblade to free Kairi's Heart, an action that also revived the other six princesses and subsequently opened the Final Keyhole. The Princesses (minus Kairi) remained in Hollow Bastion to stop the flow of darkness that had begun to seep from the still-open Keyhole until Sora could return. Once the Keyhole was sealed, the princesses patiently awaited his victory against Ansem so that they could return home, which finally happened when Kingdom Hearts was sealed and the worlds restored.

Alice is once again captured by the Queen of Hearts, accused of memory theft, but Sora manages to exonerate her.

Belle reappears in Hollow Bastion where the witch Maleficent forces her to turn the Beast into a Heartless, but Belle refuses and eventually sacrifices herself to protect the Beast. She is later restored by the defeat of Maleficent.

Jasmine is once again captured by the evil vizier Jafar, but Aladdin and Sora come to her rescue in time. Aladdin is hoping to become a prince to become her equal, but later decides to be himself as to let Jasmine appreciate him for who he really is.

Kairi does not appear in person, though she still plays the biggest role out of all Princesses. As Sora, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy ascend Castle Oblivion, Sora's memories of her begin to alter and eventually replaced by her Nobody, Naminé. But, by remembering Kairi again, Sora started regaining his lost memories that had been torn away by Naminé. In Riku's story, Naminé appears as Kairi to tell Riku not to hide from the darkness in his heart.

Belle and Jasmine once again play prominent roles in their respective worlds, but not as Princesses of Heart. They are both worried about their loved ones.

Belle is locked in the east wing by the Beast, who is affected by Xaldin's influence. She meets Sora and co. when they arrive and asks them to free the Beast's servants, who are all locked in the castle dungeon and later goes off to follow Xaldin, only to be chased by a gigantic Heartless into the ballroom. The restored Beast runs into the rescue and manages to defeat the monster with Sora, Donald and Goofy.

Sometime later, Belle and Beast open a party, only to be interrupted by Xaldin once more who steals the Beast's precious rose, thus depresses him to the point that he decides to push Belle and Sora out from the castle. Belle manages to take back the rose when she gets captured by Xaldin and runs to safety, allowing Sora and the Beast to defeat him. The Beast then asks Belle to stay with him, which she happily agrees.

Jasmine greets Sora, Donald, and Goofy when they first arrive at Agrabah and tells them of her worry for Aladdin, who has been going to town to look for action. She asks them to find him and ask him about the problem. Jasmine is one of the first to be persuaded by Iago's worth to join them. Sometime later, Jafar is released from his lamp and Agrabah is once again in chaos. While Iago leads Sora and the others to a trap, Jafar captures Jasmine and prepares to reign over the kingdom. The four warriors, however, escape his trap and manage to return on time to stop Jafar's malice one last time.

In Tron's world, Space Paranoids, the password to access the DTD in the dataspace, was the names of the seven princesses. But once the MCP attempts to hack into it, Tron changes the password to the names Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

Kairi is the princess with the largest role; she indirectly connects with Roxas and in turn remembers Sora, whom she almost completely forgot about due to Naminé's magic. She later gets captured by Organization XIII in their attempt to raise Sora's anger, causing him to defeat more Heartless and release more hearts to fuel the construction of Kingdom Hearts. In the World That Never Was, she is rescued by her Nobody, Naminé, and meets up with Riku, and later Sora. As they no longer have any place to go back to, they head toward the tower of the Castle That Never Was together to confront Xemnas and end the war once and for all. Once the war is over, she returns home with her friends; with Naminé and Roxas joined with her and Sora, respectively.

The data versions of Alice and Jasmine appear in their respective worlds, also data created from Jiminy's Journal. In this story, Alice has lost her memory and needs to remember her name; while Jasmine is simply captured by Data Jafar, waiting to be rescued.

A data-based Kairi was shown in Neverland on the Clock Tower with Riku in a lost memory flashback. At the end of the game, the real Kairi appears alongside the real Sora and Riku where they read a letter from Mickey.

After learning of Xehanort's goal, Yen Sid reveals to Mickey the origins of the Princesses of Heart and his fear that Xehanort's 13 Darknesses would go after the princesses and cast the worlds in darkness again if they did not form the Seven Lights to fight them. Despite not wanting to put the Princesses as a whole in danger, Yen Sid had Riku bring Kairi to him so she can master her Keyblade and aid the others in the upcoming battle.

It was revealed that Elsa, Anna, and Rapunzel are part of the new Seven Princesses of Light.

Powers and abilities

The Final Keyhole nearly revealed by the six hearts.

Joint powers

The seven Princesses possess only light within their hearts. These hearts of pure light allow them to open the Final Keyhole in Hollow Bastion, which is supposed to hold absolute power over the universe. However, it can only be opened when they are all gathered, and their hearts are used in some form of ritual. Once the Keyhole is opened, the hearts return to the Princesses' bodies.

Since their hearts are fragments of the χ-blade, once they join with the 13 darknesses, the weapon can be re-forged.

The purity of their hearts also grants them abilities to keep darkness away or hold it back temporarily, something that comes natural to the Princesses merely by being in presence. The greater the number of Princesses gathered, the more effective this skill is. In addition, they can sense darkness, as shown when five of the princesses tell Sora of a great darkness nearby.

They have also shown to have an ability to manipulate other people's powers; for instance, five of the Princesses grant Sora the power of fire, upgrading his Fire magic.

According to the manga, the Princesses of Heart are able to travel through the Corridors of Darkness without any negative effects, as without darkness in their hearts, they cannot be corrupted. Also, in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Maleficent explains that she cannot obtain Aurora's heart, because it is of pure light.

D-Links

Cinderella becomes a D-Link for Terra, Ventus, and Aqua in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, as well as Snow White for Ventus and Aqua, after the events of their respective worlds transpire. As D-Links, they can project their powers to the three Keyblade wielders while remaining in their home worlds.

Keyblade

Kairi encountered Keyblade Master Aqua as a young child, and when she touched her Keyblade, the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony was accidentally performed, allowing Kairi to be able to wield a Keyblade and use it in battle during adolescent years. Because of this, Kairi is the first and only Princess of Heart to harness the power to wield a Keyblade.

Trivia

The Bradygames official strategy guide for Kingdom Hearts II mistakenly lists Jasmine as a "Princess of Light", rather than a "Princess of Heart".

Five of the Princesses of Heart are also a part of the Disney Princess franchise. Alice and Kairi are not officially part of the Disney Princesses, although Alice has occasionally appeared alongside them.